State of Mental Health
9:05 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Monday afternoon was flying by, as every other typical Monday afternoon. I went to my mailbox, got the mail, came in the house and began to look it over. In the pile was a letter from a program that funds my 17 year old son Zech's mental health care and residential services, the Illinois Care Grant (or ICG for short). I opened it, thinking not much about it as we have to renew every year. I was so sure that it would be renewed, that I hadn't really even given it a second thought. Well guess what. It wasn't renewed. It is over effective the end of April. Now you have to understand that Zech has been in residential placements for nearly 6 years, not because we don't love him or want him at home, but because HE NEEDS to be there. The audacity of some bozo sitting there making decisions based on very limited information, most of the time without so much as a medical degree, is just outrageous to me. They say that since the last episode of major hallucinations was back in December (What a whole 3 months ago), he is "stable" enough to return to the home environment. Never mind that he is on high amounts of psychotropic drugs, including anti-psychotic medication, never mind that he hasn't been able to handle a home visit of more then two days, never mind that his abilities at school are falling apart, never mind that he is unable to sleep and is giving his home all kinds of hassles, never mind that this same home has three staff members to four kids~AND they change shifts every 8 hours. What the heck am I supposed to do with him????
So being the good mother that I am, I am appeal the process. In the meantime though I have also begun to work on some other things, in case he comes home, to make sure that his needs (and ours) are met. Unfortunately I am hitting HUGE road blocks everywhere I turn. Seems that our state is out of money, and is stupid enough to cancel services for the mentally ill FIRST! What complete morons! Do they not get that this will eventually cost them 2, 3 or even 4 times more money??? I told those that are close to me, that I will fight with everything that is in me to get his grant approved. But that when that fight is over, win or lose, I will begin a campaign like none other in this state. I will guarantee that senators, congressmen, and any other official both in the state and national government will not only Know my name, but grow to FEAR IT!
So being the good mother that I am, I am appeal the process. In the meantime though I have also begun to work on some other things, in case he comes home, to make sure that his needs (and ours) are met. Unfortunately I am hitting HUGE road blocks everywhere I turn. Seems that our state is out of money, and is stupid enough to cancel services for the mentally ill FIRST! What complete morons! Do they not get that this will eventually cost them 2, 3 or even 4 times more money??? I told those that are close to me, that I will fight with everything that is in me to get his grant approved. But that when that fight is over, win or lose, I will begin a campaign like none other in this state. I will guarantee that senators, congressmen, and any other official both in the state and national government will not only Know my name, but grow to FEAR IT!
0 comments:
Post a Comment